BI Cited ‘Top Technology’ for 2009
February 14, 2009 12:32 am Analyst Reports, BI Strategy, Cloud Computing, CRM Solutions, IT Strategy, SaaSThe latest Gartner 2009 CIO Agenda survey of 1500 CIO’s has revealed some surprising and not so surprising results.
Firstly, the not so surprising is that BI has been voted as the top technology for 2009, after all BI has held this spot since 2006. What is surprising is that the focus is not on analytics – the survey indicated that the top CIO business expectation was in improving business processes. This surprised me, as many companies have supposedly already been through this era – or maybe is just wasn’t done well enough. The other inference I have made is that BI is now focusing on the operational value it contributes – what we refer to as OBI.
The rankings of exectations and technologies are:
Expectations
- Reducing enterprise costs
- Improving enterprise workforce effectiveness
- Attracting and retaining new customers [#2 in 2008]
- Creating new products or services [#3 in 2008], however innovation is forecast to move up the ladder to top spot by 2012.
IT Strategies
- Tighter link between business and IT strategies
- Reducing the cost of IT [#10 in 2008]
- Delivering projects that enable growth
- Attracting, developing and retaining IT personnel
Technologies
- Business intelligence [BI] [ since 2006]
- Enterprise applications such as CRM or ERP
- Servers and storage technologies.
The survey results overall are not surprising. As the current market is hardly conducive to growth strategies for most businesses, it is an ideal time to refocus on core business and get better at the basics. BI is known for its ability to improve productivity whilst reducing costs. We can not overlook the past carnage of poorly implemented BI projects and tools that were too difficult for most business users to integrate into their daily operations. However, in the past two years this scenario has changed signficiantly, with tools much more business oriented and the knowledge base of implementation best practice taking learnings from the past and crafting far better BI program practices of today. The other missing link I will personally add is the level of education the business receives, not in using BI but in why they should be using it, and exactly how it improves a business from single user self performance management all the way up to the boardroom strategy.
Virtualisation, cloud computing and software-as-a-service [SaaS] are also acknowledged as cost reducing strategies but many IT managers are still cautious around availability, security, and a full functional fit. Such technologies are gaining favor with mid to small enterprises that may not have the full IT capabilities of larger corporates.
Overall, although BI is voted the top technology for 2009, the ‘killer app’ is ‘Leadership’. Companies don’t want consultants giving them a set of options – they want strong leadership paths to drive their businesses through the current downturn and still come out having advanced in some way. It may not be with customer growth and revenue growth, but I expect we will see leaner and meaner businesses forging ahead with renewed vigor and tighter focus.
Survey base: N=1500 CIOs worldwide, Duration= 3 months to Dec 15, 2008. Average company size = 400, average IT budget = $90 million.
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